The Tofoo Co has continued to go from strength to strength as the brand benefited from a shift away from ultra-processed foods toward products made with natural ingredients.
Revenues at the business jumped 18% to £23.9m in 2024 on the back of a 17% rise in volumes as tofu and tempeh bucked wider declines in the meat-free category.
Profits also increased by almost 40% to a £2.2m – before a one-off hit of £483k for fees related to a 2024 private equity takeover – as Tofoo improved margins thanks to efficiency gains and stable soya bean prices.
David Knibbs, who started the company with his wife Lydia Smith in 2016, told The Grocer 2024 represented the best performance for The Tofoo Co since its inception.
New products, a larger marketing investment, deeper distribution, more space for The Tofoo Co in the supermarkets and growth in foodservice all contributed to the record year.
“2024 was a great year as Tofoo Co continued to pick up new shoppers, building on our natural platform as the meat-free category itself struggled with the PR around UPFs,” Knibbs said. “This was driven by our biggest investment in marketing on the ‘Fast Foo’ campaign, scale sampling and NPD.”
The Tofoo Co hit £30m in retail sales value for the first time and is now the second-biggest brand in the chilled meat-free category behind market leader Quorn.
It was one of the few big brands in the wider category in growth for both values and volumes in 2024, according to The Grocer’s latest Top Products Survey.
Accounts for the business filed at Companies House noted penetration in the wider category fell again in 2024 to stand at 24.3%. Tofoo attributed the fall in the number of less households shopping for meat alternatives to negative press around UPFs and an impression meat-free was expensive relative to traditional sources of protein.
The accounts added that tofu defied the downward trend by growing penetration 0.2%, with the Tofoo brand leading the charge.
“2025 has started really well and we continue to see double-digit growth,” Knibbs said. “The business is growing strongly in all channels and the launch in France across four major retailers has started well. We are looking to expand further afield.”
German private equity firm Comitis Capital picked up a majority stake in The Tofoo Co last year to support a bigger push into the mainstream for the brand, as revealed at the time by The Grocer.
The business recently announced a project to build a 68,000 sq ft factory at its Yorkshire base in Malton, about one mile from its current site, to boost capacity. It is expected – subject to planning – to be completed by late 2026 or early 2027.
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